Rostrum: “Idle Curiosity” Edition

Tug the boats
Pull the boats
Yank the boats
Jerk the boats

…as long as we’re not towing them back

But Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says “nothing justifies the Prime Minister’s ongoing war on the truth”.

“It is not for Tony Abbott to be satisfied that actions taken by his Government are right and justified – that is for the Australian people to judge.”

Well done Bill, I wonder if “the War on Truth” will get the same mileage as “she Lied” did??

Meanwhile, while everyone was clapping each other on their backs yesterday claiming that the Indonesians were behind this push, the truth finally filters through

Mr Abbott’s comments came as Indonesia’s government and military closed ranks against Australia’s policy of turning back asylum seeker boats.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-10/abbott-likens-campaign-against-people-smugglers-to-war/5193546

Where it all ends, nobody knows. But one thing is certain, since this Government has come to power, our relationship with Indonesia has degenerated markedly, from what was a healthy and burgeoning relationship under successive Governments..

It’s too late to save the flying kangaroo

Damn those Unions! How dare they strand it’s entire fleet with ALL their passengers without any notification!

Funnily, I think we will get another round of absolute rubbish stories from thise vested interests blaming the workers and Unions again. It is Holden’s all over.

What a record for a new Government “Football, Meat Pies, (bloody unions), and (bloody unions) cars”

And to top it all of, we are off to WAR! Remember, we were always at war with EastAsia Smugglers

That’s a pity.

Qantas is overburdened with the baggage of a traditional airline structure, the overheads and fixed costs are unsustainable.

Virgin doesn’t have a comparable cost structure and yes the union conditions that are imposed on Qantas that don’t apply to Virgin, are part of the problem

Sad but true

http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/cathy-wilcox-20090909-fhd6.html

“But then I’ve yet to experience flying in VN…….”

Oh……………….you’ll certainly enjoy that.

I just hope for your sake none of the Vietnamese Governments VIP’s are going anywhere as they tend to confiscate 2 or 3 of Vietnam Airs Jets whenever they feel like with 2 hours notice.

Tooooooooooo bad if its supposed to be your flight

I remember when I was offered a flight on a Cambodian Tin Pot airline a few years ago for my little jungle stint there. All of us in our party decided to “bus” it across the border.

Just before the Cambodian border the bus stopped and the entire rear of the bus became a ramp (we were up front).

It just folded down onto the roadway like a castle drawbridge.

Now us Westerners were expecting and OK with the various ducks and chickens we were sharing the cabin with .But it did bring a smile to our western faces when a few of the rear seats were also taken out and up the ramp came a donkey. He traveled with us for the next 80km

No, the union imposed structures are a barrier to efficiency, not related to safety.

Yet the results are in..

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/09/travel/safest-airline-2013/

Sorry Walrus, but maybe the CEO should concentrate on being proud of what he has, rather than jealous of what others can get away with??

And I agree. Joyce has had his chance. Time for him to go before the Government makes a decision on the Qantas Sale Act. We need some clean air and a clean slate.

And why the fuck do we need a protected national carrier ?

Qantas as a brand will live on but it needs flexibility

Actually Air France lost one or was it two in the last few years. At leastt one btw South America and France I think it was

You cant shift all the blame to the Board.

As I said Joyce should go but they need to be able to raise capital from shareholders and therefore need a very good Sugar Daddy and that cannot be the Federal Government.

The Act needs changing or the market will take the matter out of the Board’s and Union’s hands anyway.

””””””””””””””’Yesterday, Mr Abbott said he preferred to be a “closed book” on Operation Sovereign Borders than give rise to “mischief-making”.

“The point is not to provide sport for public discussion; the point is to stop the boats,” he told Macquarie Radio.””””””’
http://www.news.com.au/national/up-to-five-boats-sent-back-as-tony-abbott-defends-secrecy/story-e6frfkp9-1226798586538
#no-pay-wall
.
(our sister publication) is living up to it`s usual standards l see, and won`t even bother challenging Mr-Rabbit on basic hypocrisy. #YayTeabagMedia

”””””’erm, teabag, news.com.au is a part of news ltd ….shaking head – again …”””””’

yes l know, put ya glasses on grandpa,

l hit teh-paywall with reb`s link in the post,

so l found another way in, and marked it with
””””’#no-pay-wall””””””

“The point is not to provide sport for public discussion; the point is to stop the boats,”

Says the proprietor of the worlds first politically based people smuggling advertising agency

”””””””””’I think I read a while back that three out of five Garduda pilots failed a drug test for methamphetamine.”””””””

Better give`em a 457-visa, they seem to be qualified for our trucking industry.

OK

There are many facets to the ills of Qantas, and a significant one is its cost structure, and highly paid inefficient workers don’t assist to get it under control.

My suggestions-
• Close the heavy maintenance base in Mascot and get the work done in a low cost country
• Outsource catering to McDonalds or KFC or anywhere that understands efficient preparation of food
• Hand over baggage handling and transport to Linfox or someone
• Source 75% of cabin crew from overseas ports
• Pay remaining workers much, much less

Meanwhile the government can change the Qantas Sale Act and let Singapore or Emirates take a 40% holding

Contentious as all that may be, they’re the arrangements that are available to Virgin!

the govt should stop interfering with qantas, and stop making itself a `future-liability` for any future qantas failure, let qantas management run it into the ground all under its own steam,

maybe `future welfare case` would read better,

“Walrus makes a lot bit of sense when he’s not in a fit of rage lashing out at everyone on the blog…”

“I’ve noticed the same curious pattern! ”

I take exception to the word “everyone”

Just home

Went Vietnamese again same restaurant

5 waitress’s tonight. Busy night

So it’s a no brainer. All under 24

All have never flown Qantas

Oops

Mrs Walrus just corrected me

2 had flown Jetstar

Listening to “moonlight shadow” on the radio

Can’t remember when I last heard it

It used to be so many girls so little time

Now it’s so much other stuff so little time

Good to see you here TJ

Awaiting Phil to lose control of his bowels I trust
And awake a tad cranky ?

I’m outa here.

The mrs and the hairy covered 4kg razor blades beckon me

LOL

Enjoy yourself

And make the monkey dance

As to this claim about Qantas being “another `welfare-case` like the auto industry” Could it perhaps be highlighted just how Holden was a “welfare-case”. Sure it got Government subsidies, subsidies that were more than compensated back from the activity it in turn generated back in the economy. Simply put, it needed those subsidies to operate on an even footing with other countries. Our Government has (had) chosen to go the subsidy path rather than the protectionist one, but they are both essentially the same thing, and they both essentially make FTA agreements largely worthless in the long run

Australia has an FTA with Thailand. The Ford Territory, which costs between $39,990 and $62,740 in Australia, costs around $100,000 in Thailand. The equivalent locally made car in Thailand costs $35,000.

Australia also has an FTA with Malaysia, but Australian manufacturers report they have no hope of selling cars in Malaysia because of arbitrary customs valuations and local content tax incentives.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-16/kohler-car-industry/5025360

And as for blaming the workers/unions, look closer to management, as the workers do the best they can, usually to see their work offset by ridiculous decisions made at the top. Not that this appeared to be a problem at Holdens, whose management seems to have been quite competent.

In a piece in The Drum in August, Phillip Toner of the University of Sydney wrote that productivity in the car industry (value added per worker) was $100,000 per worker compared with $85,000 across the economy.

So it doesn’t seem that motor industry productivity is lower than elsewhere and that wages are out of line, or that car industry workers are living the high life.

No, Qantas, and its own eventual demise can be squarely landed at the feet of Joyce. He has run this company into the ground, for what reason, who knows, perhaps petty spite, or perhaps simple lack of talent, either way, the fault lies at the top here, and again, the workers will feel the brunt of the failures

The Virgin forces knew very well that in the past Qantas had always been able to go to the capital raising market and come away oversubscribed for anything it asked without there being the slightest problem with the restrictions on foreign-domiciled shareholders written into the Qantas Sale Act of 1992.

But not any more. After five years of arguably appalling mismanagement, Qantas can’t access such shares for cash issues. Especially not at a share price stubbornly below $1.50, and yesterday trading as low as $1 and closing not much higher.
……….
There is much more Joyce needs to justify. He has not put in writing any requests for action by the government to save Qantas from the consequences of his quite shockingly bad management of the airline, in which more than $1 billion worth of resources appears to have been squandered on loss-making adventures in Asia, and of course $200 million worth of collateral from his stranding tens of thousands of customers in October 2011 to resolve an industrial impasse of managements own making.
…….
This isn’t about a level playing field, as Qantas claims. It is about the quality of its management, and the deep levels of harm it has inflicted on the carrier.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/12/06/qantas-playing-field-isnt-level-it-has-poor-managers-running-it/?wpmp_switcher=mobile&wpmp_tp=1

Having said that, most, if not all auto-making countries have been sucked in to being extorted by the auto-makers.

Then it isn’t welfare if we offer (well, did) the same to ours to try and keep the playing field level.

To be profitable and entirely viable Qantas requires-
*access to foreign capital (government regulation)
*a lower cost structure (largely labour related)

Virgin has access to both, so what’s the problem with suggesting a level playing field?

a new CEO and board (cos they enable him)

“The Greens are a separate, different, independent political force whose views and ideology are contrary to the views and ideology of the labour movement.

“We don’t think it is in the interests of the labour movement to be forming formal allegiances with the Greens.”

Paul Howes

West Virginia has had a chemical spill which has contaminated their water supply, bottled water sold out. via sbs1 tv

””””””””””’The fact that Alan Joyce is still at the helm of Qantas and blaming just about everyone else for the woes of Qantas bar himself is frankly bordering on the ridiculous. In any other company he would’ve been sacked years ago.”””’
fully agree
.
””””””””He was clearly never up to the job in the first place.””’
Promoted beyond capability l suspect.

He seemed to do OK for a uk airline, but the uk (including_ireland) is what.? the size of Tasmania.? Half of Victoria.?

lt looks to me the `error` of being somewhat successful in the uk, was assumed would automatically transfer/translate to being successful in Aust.

I agree that young people are less inclined to join a union and generally bargain on their own behalf. In a free market, depending on supply and demand, the workers are cogs supplying widgets and are expendable.

The nearby gold mine employed 3000 miners a few years ago, but new heavy moving technology, coupled with a downturn in the gold price, has seen their numbers reduced by two-thirds. The union is unable to do anything about this.

Howes is looking at the big picture and this insidious marriage with the Greens. The Tasmanian divorce is drawing a line in the sand and some of ‘you people’ maybe forced to consider your political future.

If Albo had been elected Opposition leader I would have become a fulsome supporter.

There maybe a double dissolution after July, if the new Senate is intransigent, which the LNP would easily win. Labor is not prepared for an early battle.

It’s interesting to note that reb has been a strident critic of Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Rudd and Abbott policies on asylum seekers. Others, such as the barrackers at CW only manage to find their voice when there is a Liberal Government.

Pathetic apologists for previous ALP policy and pathetic hypocrites under this government.

I still think John Howard got it right. We take our asylum seekers from UNHCR camps.

Some leftoids want a regional solution. And that is the wrong thing to do.

We do not want asylum seekers from Africa and South America to somehow travel to Indonesia and then somehow find a people smuggler and then somehow find $10,000 of hard currency.

Taking asylum seekers from UNHCR camps is the way to go.

Unfortunately way back in 2007 Australia voted against that idea because Howard was mean and nasty whereas nice Mr Rudd is good and righteous.

Anyway that is what ALP supporters said.

Surfs up in Europe

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2014/jan/10/surfers-europe-video

It is interesting that so many who sought to excuse every contortion and press release of the ALP have now discovered a conscience about the plight of asylum seekers.

They obviously don’t recall their previous expediency

ALP supporters are going to be upset. The Coalition is closing down one of the few achievements of the ALPs time in power.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-14/morrison-to-announce-closure-of-four-mainland-detention-centres/5199160

“Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the closure of four detention centres on the Australian mainland, in a move he says will save the budget $88.8 million a year.”

Building detention centers was one of the few things the ALP was good at.

He choked.

Bernard retired hurt.

When’s the next Test?

O’Farrell grows tin ear in alcohol debate.

Hard to bring the name of a union leader to mind these days.

Power has gone a-knocking elsewhere.

Good one Tom

As pointed out in an article today earlier lockouts prompt people to go out earlier with less time between finishing work/sport/whatever to “preload” on booze at a friend’s place.

It would also discourage people from traveling into the “Zoo” AKA Kings Cross/Rocks areas in the first place. They’d be more likely to go to their local pub/club for a night out.

Let the muscled up goons of South West Sydney conduct their street fights in their own neighbourhoods where the Police can take corrective societal cleansing action and obtain greatly needed target practice with their Glocks and assortment of high powered telescopic rifles.

Sure there might be some major road closures and the police might need to occupy rooftops but this would occur in largely off peak times anyway

I haven’t flown Qantas for ages. Just hate the standard of service so I go Virgin. When I was with Mrs Walrus in Perth a couple of weekends ago we both flew over on Virgin but because she stayed over there slightly longer visiting some friends and due to it being peak season she had to fly back on Qantas’ notorious overnight Perth to Sydney “Hepburn flight” ( Its been called that for many years as you get on feeling and looking like Audrey but get off feeling and looking like Katherine)

Never ever ever ever ever again will she go Qantas she reckons.

🙂

Your link didn’t work for me Tony, so I’m guessing its just another cop show with a twist.

The crews on Qantas international flights have always been a little up themselves, less so than BA crew though.

The Qantas domestic people are better. Qantas should put some of them on long haul flights

I blame the union imposed archaic seniority/bidding system for the malaise in service standards

TB I think your points are discussios about the deficiencies of past management

It is the responsibility of the current management to overcome those deficiencies
To do this it has to axsress the resistance of unions to reasonable reform.

You should participate in analysis of options for the current people rather than simply wishing the past was different

Apparently it’s a bit hot in Melbourne .

Is there a reason why it’s founders didn’t settle closer to a few beaches ?

Just curious

It’s lovely up here in Palm Beach

Just like any old summer

Heatwaves in Oz are caused by Rossby Waves and cyclones (eyes glaze over) ….. in other nooze.

‘A study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence last month shows that alcohol intoxication not only increases aggressive offending, but also the risk of becoming a victim of a violent crime. This reflects well-founded concerns by the community, emergency services and public health experts about Australia’s binge drinking culture. Research shows that one in eight deaths of people aged under 25 is due to alcohol, with over 60 % of under 29 year-olds drinking with the specific intention to get drunk.’

Potentially 46+ in Adelaide…

Fahrenheit had a great sense of drama. That is 114.8 deg£}*{+#%,£ And maybe MORE you say T.

Enough to fry a little Egg or even melt your blubber Walrus.

The map of Oz looks like one of those maps illiciting terrified looks in a blockbuster-weather-turns-feral movie. We are now so red, brown and crisp that I think the old continent will curl up at the edges. We might start crackling.

Is there any place left on earth which is not at the point of self-combustion or dripping with icicles? Maybe gentle zephyrs are still blowing in NZ. Ah but their glaciers are pouring into the sea aren’t they?

No place to hide.

No of course not Egg. Just like the geological discoveries of the 19th century that the earth was millions of years old had no bearing on a literal reading of the bible that the earth was two thousand or so years. Forgive my maths. Never a strong point.

The inability to accept reality is common to us all.

Human beings tell themselves all kinds of funny stuff.

Low-brow missionaries in the 19th century thought they were lifting moral standards by herding the indigenous people’s of Australia, the Pacific and Africa into the street wear of Clapham Junction or Hoboken North.

I have come to the conclusion that failure to accept that the actions of mankind are having an adverse effect on climate is a manifestation of personal psychology.

There is no dealing with it. Minds have been snapped shut.

That is the last statement issued today and perhaps for ever more on this matter.

It is simply too hot for battle. I am being globally warmed.

It’s amusing that the same people who were at pains to point out the recent frigid temperatures in the US were merely changes in the weather, are quick to link Australian heatwaves to human-caused global warming climate change climate disruption. Where does that leave Melbourne’s 1908 heatwave, long before man-made CO2 could possibly have been having any effect?

“After notching up two consecutive days over 40 degrees Celsius, Melbourne is on track to record its second-longest heatwave since records began in the 1830s. The temperature is expected to reach 41C today before increasing to 42C tomorrow. The longest heatwave in Melbourne was in 1908, when there were five consecutive days over 40C.”

The Guardian is running AAP

‘On the back of the extreme conditions, the recently formed Climate Council has released interim findings from its new heatwave report.

‘The report found the likelihood of heatwaves lingering for longer and becoming more intense was increasing as greenhouse gases continued to accumulate in the atmosphere.’

Newspaper coverage worldwide is generally down on the issue.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/15/the-rise-and-fall-of-global-newspaper-coverage-of-global-warming-and-climate-change/

Hotter, longer, earlier and more often. In a nutshell.

That is what climate change means for a continent like Australia. That is our poisoned parcel.

I saw the figures from the 1908 heat wave. Does anyone know if that blaster came early so early in Jan? I will look it up.

Why?

What is this worldwide conspiracy?

Crackers.

Jan 1908 heat wave in sizzled Melbourne from 15 to 20 Jan.

Imagine enduring that in your serge suit and spats and lace-up stays for the ladies.

The Elizabeth St creek was very highly odoured apparently. Very Elizabethan.

Egg – of course we have had extreme weather events in the past. The scientists look at trends as you well now.

In fact Egg I think you are having fun. I don’t think you believe any of the stuff you write. You are just winding people up.

Statements referring to your duty to rectify are a dead giveaway.

No you are not hard to pick. You are probably a jokester.

If you do believe all that stuff and seek your guidance from Bolt and the gang then I feel very sane indeed which is almost as troubling.

Thanks for link.

“The prediction coincided with the release of interim findings of the Climate Council’s new report, Australian Heatwaves: Hotter, Longer, Earlier and More Often.”

I’ll start believing in Mathematical Climate Models once the Economists of the World get their own Mathematical Models to work

Wait a minute

Dont some of these posts belong in a different sandpit ?

(A large number of eyes squint as they look in the direction of Egg)

‘The tactic is to slander anyone …’

They have been very successful in doing that, but ultimately they will have to recant, which will make my victory taste even sweeter.

‘(A large number of eyes squint as they look in the direction of Egg)’

LOL

By golly SB the whole denialti seems to believe there is a left-wing plot, a world-wide conspiracy to bring down civilization as we know it.

It is akin to thinking that NASA has a bunch of aliens locked up somewhere in orange jumpsuits or that the Pope heads the Mafia.

Who is running this conspiracy outfit?

Why?

How, in this supposedly enlightened age, has scientific discussion been plundered by ideological politicians and their camp followers to be used as rhetorical debating points. Logic has been blown away by hot air.

How is it that people without any scientific qualifications whatsoever can belittle those with such qualifications, even Nobel prize winners.

I am reminded of those parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated because some quack has warned against it.

I suppose this is what happens when Everyman becomes too big for his/her boots.

“And what was it Tim Flannery said about a number of dams in major Australian cities that would never again be filled ?”

Yes and when in power the ALP took that advice and built a several billion dollar desal plant which is now in mothballs.

It may come in useful one day however.

‘Meanwhile Egg might like to enlighten us about the lefty world domination plot.’

When the Berlin Wall came down the far left in Australia decided to infiltrate the Greens and Labor. (Julia’s memoirs will have more on this.)

The stunning success of the Balmain Greens gave the Germans great inspiration and the rest is history.

And the right wing folk held big tea parties.

Yes, we are polarized.

But Egg, who is keeping the world domination plot hatched by the left on the road? Where is head office?

Btw how do you know what is in Julia’s book?

Play the game not ‘place’.

Delingpole names some revolutionary heros.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100254064/how-the-blair-government-paid-for-the-subversion-of-our-state-broadcaster/

Thankyou for your thought provoking piece SB.

I am sure all kinds of agendas are at work over this issue but I remain convinced that the climate is changing and that people are contributing.

It is one thing to call up 1908 as an example of days of sky high temps in Melbourne but another when one can see there is a clear trend for Herr Von Fahrenheit or Cecilie Celsius to flip us all on the griddle with increasing frequency.

Weather events cease being extreme and become the new norm. I think that has been established.

May I remind you all that I am the recipient of the prestigious Gt Ms Rationality Award 2013.

Egg is think you won an award too. Mmm what was that for?

Listen up for I am the Voice of Reason. Hear me Roar.

Self interest means people (even ones that are scientists) will look for ways to secure the funding that justifies their employment.

People are motivated by all sorts of things, some hidden, some clear for all to see.

I have more faith in the stats.

Australian Bureau of Stats makes interesting reading on temp increases in Oz since 1950.

‘Self interest means people (even ones that are scientists) will look for ways to secure the funding that justifies their employment.’

That’s true, but more accurately its enlightened self interest. The problem I have with the cabal is that their deceit is costing the hapless taxpayers big time, the mothballed desalination plants come to mind.

There was no due diligence.

Dumpty, week long blizzards in the South-East have buried Adelaide, Hobart, Melbourne and Canberra in meters of snow. All cities have large flocks of penguins circling them.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-14/south-east-australia-sizzles-as-heatwave-takes-hold/5199714

‘Yes and they have no competitive advantage in energy as they have almost the highest prices in Europe.’

You would think they would at least import clean black coal from Oz, but no they are using dirty brown coal from down the road. Where’s the morality in this?

Actually there are coal mines in France, Spain, Belguim, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Netherlands. Surely the last isn’t correct.

Yes…………………..but are they cheap to mine or just the usual heavily subsidised crap that the EU has turned into an art form

Reb they left out this recent discovery.

‘Astronomers using Nasa data have calculated for the first time that in our galaxy alone, there are at least 8.8 billion stars with Earth-size planets in the habitable temperature zone.

‘The study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.’

abc1, stephen fry is taking on the phobes around the world,
on `out there`

`out there` part-2 8.30 next monday,
stephen fry heckles Vlads phobes, on my abc1